How badly would Vista react to 2 major hardware changes?

[NTB]

Space is getting a little tight on my current C: drive, so I bought a newer, larger HDD and want to re-install vista on that. I *know* I'll have to re-activate it then, but I was wondering more about the CPU upgrade. If, later this year, I swap the current dual core for a quad, is Vista going to give me a fit?

Nathan

 

[RebateMonger]

Neither one of those upgrades should cause any problems at all, no matter what version of Vista you are using. Even if they require Activation, it'd certainly be Online Activation, taking about a minute.

 

[NTB]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Neither one of those upgrades should cause any problems at all, no matter what version of Vista you are using. Even if they require Activation, it'd certainly be Online Activation, taking about a minute.

If so, cool I'll probably replace the C: drive as soon as I get internet access back (just moved for a new job), but I figured I could wait a while on the CPU. It's not so much the extra processing power I'm after as it is VT extensions that come along with it.

Nathan

 

[Swampster]

I recently replaced my motherboard, memory, and CPU. You can't get much more of an upgrade than that <G>. (Vista Business w/SP1)

Upon first and second boot it concerned itself with finding all the new hardware, and then once that was all completed it told me that an activation would be necessary. It was accomplished online in a matter of seconds.

The first time I went into my Office Pro 2007, it too need to be reactivated, but was accomplished online in a matter of seconds.

 

[Modelworks]

Vista ties itself to some strings in the motherboard bios for activation. That was one of the hacks to faking vista activation that MS still hasn't beaten, flashing the motherboard bios. As long as you only change the cpu you should not have to activate again.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: NTB
Space is getting a little tight on my current C: drive, so I bought a newer, larger HDD and want to re-install vista on that. I *know* I'll have to re-activate it...

I was running Windows Vista HP SP1 on a 160GB Toshiba drive and *wanted* more room so I could multi-boot it without messing up my Vista install.

I recently purchased a 320GB drive (Dec 2008) and transferred the contents of my 160GB drive to the 320GB drive using D2D (disk-to-disk) cloning - and this didn't require any reactivation of any software, including the OS.

I used a proggie called Clonezilla to do this - and a Thermaltake BlacX Docking Station (since it was a lappy and only has room for one drive).

Truthfully, I've been running Windows off n' on since version 1.0 (LoL! Win 1 came on a single floppy and looked like Norton Commander) and I've NEVER had to reactivate anything...

Guess I've just been lucky that way!

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
Vista ties itself to some strings in the motherboard bios for activation. That was one of the hacks to faking vista activation that MS still hasn't beaten, flashing the motherboard bios. As long as you only change the cpu you should not have to activate again.

Hrm...

That's odd! Are you *sure* about that?

I've flashed the BIOS in my Vista lappy (like) 6 times!

I don't enjoy flashing BIOSs and I sweat bullets every time I do it... even so, I've never had to reactivate Vista.

 

[NTB]

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: Modelworks
Vista ties itself to some strings in the motherboard bios for activation. That was one of the hacks to faking vista activation that MS still hasn't beaten, flashing the motherboard bios. As long as you only change the cpu you should not have to activate again.

Hrm...

That's odd! Are you *sure* about that?

I've flashed the BIOS in my Vista lappy (like) 6 times!

I don't enjoy flashing BIOSs and I sweat bullets every time I do it... even so, I've never had to reactivate Vista.

He's probably talking about flashing to an...*ahem*...unsupported/unofficial BIOS

Nathan

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: NTB

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: Modelworks
Vista ties itself to some strings in the motherboard bios for activation. That was one of the hacks to faking vista activation that MS still hasn't beaten, flashing the motherboard bios. As long as you only change the cpu you should not have to activate again.

Hrm...

That's odd! Are you *sure* about that?

I've flashed the BIOS in my Vista lappy (like) 6 times!

I don't enjoy flashing BIOSs and I sweat bullets every time I do it... even so, I've never had to reactivate Vista.

He's probably talking about flashing to an...*ahem*...unsupported/unofficial BIOS

Nathan

Yeah, OEM licenses look for a certain string to be in the bios. So some people have taken to editing any bios, adding the string and flashing the board. Vista thinks its legit because the string is there.

Your laptop is safe.

 

[corkyg]

I rotate/swap my HDDs in Vista and XP about every 10 days. Been doing so for eons. Never a reacvtivation. I have also changed CPUs - no reactivation. As long as you are WGA approved and don't try to make too many changes at once, you should have no problems.

BTW, I( do this on my 2 desktops (actually floortops) and 2 notebooks. No sweat-i-da!

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
Your laptop is safe.

The sad thing is...

I really don't care about Windows any more. I *wish* it would quit working!

Don't you guys grow tired of playing this game?

I keep it around for my wife - that's all...

 

[t0mn8r]

Team,
I had a legit version of Ultimate.

That's right, strictly legit.

I flashed my BIOS due to a memory incompatibility problem and then - no more activation.

:-(

WTF

What is M$ doing in my BIOS???

Anyhoo, I reported this as a bug on the M$ form and was told that this doesn't happen.

Right.....

Two months later they admitted that it does happen and issued a patch.

Be careful! I never got my activation back.

:|

 

[Staples]

Flashing your BIOS does not do anything.

I switched my CPU to a faster one and I had to reactivate it. No problem, online activation was sucessful.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: t0mn8r
I flashed my BIOS due to a memory incompatibility problem and then - no more activation.

Was this a name-brand PC (Dell, HP, eMachines, etc)?